The Start menu is your way into Windows and the web — it ’s where you find your apps and start your searches , where you go to customize the organization and organize your digital life story . It ’s the hub of everything you do on your Windows electronic computer , so do n’t descend for the default configuration : Make the commencement menu your own .

Start menu basics

To get at the basic Start carte mount , enter the Start card itself and snap the cog icon on the left . Choose Personalization , then Start , and you could turn over various Start menu feature on or off , including whether or not recently instal and frequently used apps are shown . The main apps lean can be blot out altogether , pass on only the tiles .

If you long for the day of Windows 8 when the Start screen would take over the whole of the exhibit , you’re able to bring those days back by turning on the toggle switch switch for Use Start full screen . Click pick out which leaflet come along on Start to show or hide links to Downloads , Documents , Music and so on .

The options for the look of the Start menu are somewhere else : Click Colors under the Personalization heading to plunk a unlike accent color for the Start carte ( and other element of Windows ) . you’re able to enable transparency effects and shift to dark modality here too — the change employ to the whole operating organization , including the Start carte du jour .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

If you tick the Start , taskbar , and action center box then a variation of the accent color you ’ve picked routine as the background to the Start fare ( and taskbar ) as well as the accents ( like the app tiles ) themselves , rather than the steady black . Any changes you make get applied in real fourth dimension , so you’re able to quickly undo any qualifying you do n’t like .

Adding and organizing apps

Any coating installed on your system gets tally to the master apps list on the left of the Start carte ( utilise the setting screens mentioned in the previous segment to show or hide this list ) . If you require to see a larger roofing tile for the program on the right wing of the Start bill of fare , mightily - click its first appearance in the inclination and take Pin to Start .

Once you have a tile immobilise , click and drag it to move it around . sweep it on top of another app image to make a new brochure , or on top of a brochure to place it in there . you may also make new groups of program program shortcut by dragging an picture to an empty spot ( get through above an ikon chemical group to name or rename it ) .

Right - dog on a roofing tile and in some cases a Resize option appears ( it depends on how the app developer has fool it ) . This gives you more option for design and configuring the Start menu , and getting the programs you need front and kernel . Choose Unpin from Start to take away a roofing tile .

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That right - chink menu also acts as a link to some other utilitarian shortcut too , depending on the app in interrogative : you could see your recently regard websites with Google Chrome , for example , or recently open up files in Microsoft Excel . If you aright - press the iTunes ikon , meanwhile , you may release gimmick , shuffle music , and more .

Adding other shortcuts

The Start menu is n’t just for your applications — shortcuts to files and website ( and vane apps ) can be kept here too . When it comes to booklet , you postulate to open them up in File Explorer first , then right - click and choose Pin to pop out . sure leaflet , like the default Music and Video unity , can be added from the preferences pane we mentioned above .

Shortcuts for file cabinet can be lend to , but it ’s a rather convoluted process : From File Explorer , hold down Alt then cluck and drag in a filing cabinet to the desktop to create a crosscut to it . Then , move that shortcut to the C : ProgramData Microsoft Windows Start Menu Programs folder — it’ll then seem on the principal apps list on the left and can be pinned to the tiles pane just like a plan .

contribute site and web app links is a picayune easier , at least in Edge : Click the three dots ( top right field ) to launch the broadcast bill of fare , then choose More puppet and pin tumbler this page to Start . The link you ’ve created gets tot up to the tiles ( and opens in Edge ) . In Chrome , give the chrome://apps page , powerful - click and choose Create shortcuts then Start menu — this only work out on that Thomas Nelson Page and only on vane apps .

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To open other web links in other browser app , the web browser app needs to be set as the default for Windows . with the page receptive , click and drag the URL to the screen background to produce a crosscut , then move that shortcut to the same coke : ProgramData Microsoft Windows Start Menu Programs folder in File Explorer that we mentioned earlier .

Start menu extras and features

That ’s most of the Start menu customization selection and tweak covered , but there are a few other points to mention . To quickly uninstall an app from the system completely , for example , properly - select its Start menu entry and choose Uninstall . This wipes it from your system of rules , not just the Start menu .

By now you ’ve belike work on out the Windows key on your keyboard ( if you have one ) launches the Start menu . You might have also establish the ‘ substitute ’ scratch line bill of fare that appears if you right - press the Start menu release — it gives you quick admission to part of the system like equipment Manager and the internet Connections screen .

The icons down the left of the Start menu give you entree to oft used pamphlet and File Explorer , as well as your Microsoft account scope ( if you ’re signing in with a Microsoft account ): Click your avatar to change your chronicle options or to lock your computer if you ’re ill-treat forth from it for a while . The Start menu is resizable too , which you might not have noticed — click and drag the top or right - hand edge of the card to change its sizing .

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you may even slay all the tiles and shrink the menu mightily down for a more Greco-Roman look , if you desire . lastly , if you have a lot of apps , click any letter manoeuver in the apps list for a quick agency of searching through them ( you could also absent and rename shortcuts by going to the C : ProgramData Microsoft Windows Start Menu Programs folder that we ’ve already name ) .

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